Abstract:
The increasing global focus on environmental sustainability has led to an increased interest in synthesizing bio-based polymers and oligomers, using renewable resources and biocatalytic pathways for the synthetic process. Two of the most important classes of compounds in this regard are the class of polyesters and polyesteramides. Polyesteramides are especially of great interest nowadays since they combine the biodegradability and biocompatibility of polyesters with the robust thermal and mechanical properties of polyesteramides, the oligoesteramides being highly valuable compounds for various industrial and biomedical applications.
The two main objectives of this thesis were the enzymatic in vitro synthesis and comprehensive characterization of novel co-oligoesters of ε-caprolactone with bio-based hydroxy acids and amino acids, and the development and optimization of biocatalytic synthetic routes for innovative aliphatic and aromatic oligoesters and oligoesteramides derived from either ε-caprolactone or ε-caprolactam. A number of 14 new compounds were obtained via a green synthetic route and the characterization of the compounds was performed utilizing modern techniques such as MALDI TOF-MS mass spectrometry, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), 1H, 13C, and 2D NMR spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy or TG and DSC thermal analysis. All the synthetized compounds exhibited biodegradability properties in the presence of a Bega River inoculum from Timișoara, Romania.
